US Air force pays tribute to helicopter crash victims

Colonel Kyle Robinson, commander of 48th Fighter Wing, says the four men
killed in the helicopter crash in Norfolk, had made the "ultimate
sacrifice"

12:32PM GMT 09 Jan 2014

A senior US Air forceofficer today paid tribute to four American servicemen who made the "ultimate sacrifice" when they were killed in a helicopter crash during a training exercise on the north Norfolk coast.

Captains Christopher S. Stover and Sean M. Ruane, Technical Sergeant Dale E. Mathews and Staff Sergeant Afton M. Ponce died when their Pave Hawk helicopter came down on a marsh near Cley-next-the-Sea on Tuesday night.

Colonel Kyle Robinson, 48th Fighter Wing commander, told reporters at RAF Lakenheath, where the wing is based: "I am deeply saddened by the loss of these great airmen. They have made the ultimate sacrifice while training to save the lives of others."

He told their families: "As a husband and father myself, I cannot imagine how heartbroken you must feel, now missing a piece of your family. I speak for the entire wing when I say that we are thinking of you, we are praying for you, and we are here for you."

Captains Stover and Ruane were the pilots, while Tech Sgt Mathews and Staff Sgt Ponce were acting as special mission aviators in the low level combat search and rescue training mission.